Book Post July Week 1 #StackedShelves #BookMail #BookReviews

Hello everyone and welcome to my first book haul of July. The books have been coming thick and fast this month! Very exciting :D. Thank you to Constable, Tinder Press, Picador, Quercus, Hodder & Stoughton, Sceptre and Legend Press for sending me some amazing book mail this week. So many great genres, from up-lifting and heartfelt to dark and seriously disturbed 😀 I hope you all enjoy this showcase and please tell me if you have read any of these books already, I would appreciate hearing your thoughts.

July Week 1 Book Haul

She Be Damned by M. J. Tjia

Published by: Legend Press

I am on the blog tour for She Be Damned, posting my review for it on the 8th of August. I always have time for Mystery novels so this is great for me. I hope SBD is as good as it looks!

Official Synopsis: A Heloise Chancey Mystery. Published 1st August 2017

London, 1863: Prostitutes in the Waterloo area are turning up dead, their sexual organs mutilated and removed. When another girl goes missing, fears grow that the killer may have claimed their latest victim.

The police are at a loss and so it falls to courtesan and professional detective, Heloise Chancey, to investigate.

With the assistance of her trusty Chinese maid, Amah Li Leen, Heloise inches closer to the truth. But when Amah is implicated in the brutal plot, Heloise must reconsider who she can trust, before the killer strikes again.

Beloved Poison by E. S. Thomson

Published By: Constable

This series looks brilliantly dark and disturbed. Sometimes a gore-fest is required. I am sure you all agree! Right…? I have heard great things about E.S Thomson so I expect the hype to be accurate. If I am not enjoying it then I can just stare at the cover for ages 😀

Official Synopsis: The object I drew out was dusty and mildewed, and blotched with dark rust-coloured stains. It smelt of time and decay, sour, like old books and parchments. The light from the chapel’s stained glass window blushed red upon it, and upon my hands, as if the thing itself radiated a bloody glow.

Ramshackle and crumbling, trapped in the past and resisting the future, St Saviour’s Infirmary awaits demolition. Within its stinking wards and cramped corridors the doctors bicker and fight. Ambition, jealousy and hatred seethe beneath the veneer of professional courtesy. Always an outsider, and with a secret of her own to hide, apothecary Jem Flockhart observes everything, but says nothing.

And then six tiny coffins are uncovered, inside each a handful of dried flowers and a bundle of mouldering rags. When Jem comes across these strange relics hidden inside the infirmary’s old chapel, her quest to understand their meaning prises open a long-forgotten past – with fatal consequences.

In a trail that leads from the bloody world of the operating theatre and the dissecting table to the notorious squalor of Newgate and the gallows, Jem’s adversary proves to be both powerful and ruthless. As St Saviour’s destruction draws near, the dead are unearthed from their graves whilst the living are forced to make impossible choices. And murder is the price to be paid for the secrets to be kept.

Dark Asylum by E. S. Thomson

Published By: Constable

I received part two as well! I am obsessed with this book, it is staring at me from the bookshelf. I am sure I just saw it move towards me…

Official Synopsis: The lips had been darned closed with six long, black, stitches. Clumsily executed, they gave the face a crude deaths-head appearance, like a child’s drawing scrawled upon a wall…

1851, Angel Meadow Asylum. Dr Rutherford, principal physician to the insane, is found dead, his head bashed in, his ears cut off, his lips and eyes stitched closed. The police direct their attention towards Angel Meadow’s inmates, but to Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain the crime is an act of calculated retribution, rather than of madness.

To discover the truth Jem and Will must pursue the story through the darkest corners of the city – from the depths of a notorious rookery, to the sordid rooms of London’s brothels, the gallows, the graveyard, the convict fleet and then back to the asylum. In a world where guilt and innocence, crime and atonement, madness and reason, are bounded by hypocrisy, ambition and betrayal, Jem and Will soon find themselves caught up in a web of dark secrets and hidden identities.

Gather The Daughters by Jennie Melamed

Published By: Tinder Press

This novel sounds like it could be seriously twisted. The synopsis really grabbed me, what could it be? I need to know!

Official Synopsis: On a small isolated island, there’s a community that lives by its own rules. Boys grow up knowing they will one day reign inside and outside the home, while girls know they will be married and pregnant within moments of hitting womanhood.

But before that time comes, there is an island ritual that offers children an exhilarating reprieve. Every summer they are turned out onto their doorsteps to roam wild: they run, they fight, they sleep on the beach and build camps in trees. They are free.

It is at the end of one of these summers, as the first frost laces the ground, that one of the younger girls witnesses something she was never supposed to see. And she returns home, muddy and terrified, clutching in her small hand a truth that could unravel their carefully constructed island world forever.

You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott

Published By: Picador

2017 seems to be the year of the psychological thriller. We still have 6 months left, could this be the best of 2017? It certainly sounds like a definite contender!

Official Synopsis: Katie and her husband Eric have made their daughter Devon the centre of their world. Talented, determined, a rising gymnastics star, Devon is the focus of her parents’ lives and the lynchpin of their marriage. There is nothing they wouldn’t do for her.

When a violent hit-and-run accident sends shockwaves through their close-knit community, Katie is immediately concerned for her daughter. She and Eric have worked so hard to protect Devon from anything that might distract or hurt her. That’s what every parent wants for their child, after all. Even if they don’t realize how much you’ve sacrificed for them. Even if they are keeping secrets from you . . .

A mother knows best . . . doesn’t she?

Where She Went by B. E. Jones

Published By: Constable

A ghost investigating her own death can either be questionable or amazingly eerie. I have a good feeling that it is going to be the latter. I am certainly going to give it a go to find out 😀

Official Synopsis: Welcome to the strange new world of Melanie Black. She used to report on murder cases – but now she finds herself the victim of one.

TV journalist Melanie Black wakes up one morning next to a man she doesn’t remember. It’s not the first time – but he ignores her even though she’s in his bed. Yet when his wife walks in with a cup of tea he greets her with a smile and to her horror, Melanie comes to realise that no one can see or hear her – because she is dead.

But has she woken up next to her murderer? And where is her body? Why is she an invisible and uninvited guest in a house she can’t leave; is she tied to this man forever? Is Melanie being punished in some way, or being given a chance to make amends?

As she begins to piece together the last days of her life and circumstances leading up to her own death it becomes clear she has to make a choice: bring her killer to justice, or wreak her own punishment on the man who murdered her.

The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths

Published By: Quercus

I live in Norwich… Cannibalism…? This is not going to do anything for my sense of security. Oh well sounds good 🙂

Official Synopsis: Something evil is waiting in the dark tunnels under Norwich – forensic archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway had better watch her step.

Meanwhile, DS Judy Johnson is investigating the disappearance of a local rough sleeper. The only trace of her is the rumour that she’s gone ‘underground’. This might be a figure of speech, but with the discovery of the bones and the rumours both Ruth and the police have heard that the network of old chalk-mining tunnels under Norwich is home to a vast community of rough sleepers, the clues point in only one direction. Local academic Martin Kellerman knows all about the tunnels and their history – but can his assertions of cannibalism and ritual killing possibly be true?

As the weather gets hotter, tensions rise. A local woman goes missing and the police are under attack. Ruth and Nelson must unravel the dark secrets of The Underground and discover just what gruesome secrets lurk at its heart – before it claims another victim.

In Every Moment We Are Still Alive by Tom Malmquist

Published By: Sceptre

I have already read a few pages of this and I know it is going to upset me but I know it will be in a meaningful way. I couldn’t imagine losing my soul mate. I am prepared to be moved and inspired.

Official Synopsis:  Tom’s heavily pregnant girlfriend Karin is rushed to hospital with severe flu. While the doctors are able to save the baby, they are helpless in the face of what transpires to be acute Leukemia, and in a moment as fleeting as it is cruel Tom gains a daughter but loses his soul-mate. In Every Moment is the story of a year that changes everything, as Tom must reconcile the fury of bereavement with the overwhelming responsibility of raising his daughter, Livia, alone.

By turns tragic and redemptive, meditative and breathless, achingly poignant and darkly funny, this heavily autobiographical novel has been described in its native Sweden as ‘hypnotic’, ‘impossible to resist’ and ‘one of the most powerful books about grief ever written’.

The Girl Who Climbed Everest by Bonita Norris

Published By: Hodder & Stoughton

I have always had a fascination with Everest. I have read many books, both fiction and non-fiction, about the great mountain. I am looking forward to being inspired and uplifted 😀

Official Synopsis: What drives us to go to our limits and beyond? What does it take to make dreams come true over all else? And how can you turn fear into courage?

From Everest to K2, The Girl Who Climbed Everest is the story of Bonita Norris’ journey undertaking the world’s toughest and most dangerous expeditions. Once an anxious teenager with an eating disorder it was the discovery of a passion for climbing that inspired Bonita to change her life. Drawing on her experiences to capture the agonies – both mental and physical – and joys of her incredible feats Bonita also imparts the lessons learned encouraging you to harness greater self-belief.

The Girl Who Climbed Everest is an honest exploration of everything Bonita has learnt from climbing. Life lessons about ambition, values, risk, happiness, the courage to fail, and what’s ultimately important. An indispensable and important book for anyone who has ever doubted their potential or put limits on themselves – whatever challenge you face or ambitions you want to achieve, The Girl Who Climbed Everest will inspire you to take action and live life more fearlessly.

Thank you for stopping by to check out all the brilliant titles that have been sent my way already this month. I know there are some more fantasy/science-fiction titles on their way so make sure to check back next week if those genres are more your style. I appreciate every book I receive from publishers and authors so it is great to showcase them here. Any you have read or like the sound of? Let me know! Until next time, happy reading 😀